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A national strike took place in Belgium on Wednesday over pay and working conditions. The strike action resulted in the cancellation of all flights in and out of the country and severely disrupted public transport. The country’s three main workers’ unions that between them have four million members, out of total population of eleven million people, encouraged their members to stop working. Robert Verteneuil, president of the General Federation of Belgian Labor, said: “What we want is to tell employers, whoever they are, that we’re sick of them putting all the dough that we create in their pockets. It’s time to give some of it back to the workers.”

The African Development Bank’s African Economic Outlook report was published this week. The annual report outlines short and medium-term forecasts on the main socio-economic factors across the continent. The report suggests that there will be 295 million new working-age people by 2030, meaning 12 million jobs will need to be created every year to prevent unemployment rising. The policy implications are outlined: “The rapid growth in Africa’s labor force and widespread poverty make job creation in high-productivity sectors a top priority for policymakers…Over the longer term, it will be vital to strengthen physical infrastructure by reliably providing electricity and other utilities, whose absence inhibits the competitiveness of African firms in global markets.”